I just installed the "My Servers" Unraid.net plugin and downloaded a backup file of my config. I also did a regular config backup directly on my server. The regular one is 587MB and the cloud one is 264MB. Why is this half the size? I opened both zips up, and is looks like the main difference is that the cloud backup doesn't include all my plugins folders. Does this happen to anyone else? Is this to be expected? Thanks

Not sure why there are differences in the config folder.

As for the important size difference, I would suspect that the My Servers backup does not backup things like:

• nvidia drivers
• your previous Unraid OS files ( /boot/previous )

 

Would that explain some of it for you ?

The txz's (installation files) for the various plugins are not saved on the backup.  This is because at boot time if the applicable txz for the plugin is not present it get's automatically re-downloaded.  Also, any empty folders (or folders only containing other folders and not any actual files) are not part of the backup.

 

The previous version of the OS is also not restored onto the flash, along with any generated diagnostics that happened during an unclean shutdown (ie: the logs folder)  

 

Kudos to you for testing your backup

 

The flash backup service backs up your configuration, but there is no need to store copies of the plugin application files as those will automatically be downloaded when the system boots.

 

Thanks for posting, this (and a nudge from @Squid  ) prompted me to update the docs to go into more detail and also to explain what to do if your system doesn't have Internet access on first boot:
  https://wiki.unraid.net/My_Servers#Automated_Flash_Backup 

 

Hope that helps

Thanks for the clarification! This makes sense.